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Sudanese immigrant votes for Southern Sudan's secession

Millions of voters streamed to the polls in Southern Sudan yesterday to cast ballots over whether the south should secedes from the north.

It was the first day of a week-long vote, and for the referendum to pass a simple majority must vote for independence and 60 percent of the 3.9 million registered voters must cast ballots.

The vote caps a decades-long period of war, death and disease that was halted six years ago by a peace accord that paved the way to Sunday's referendum.

Natives of Southern Sudan who live in the U.S. traveled to seven spots around the country to cast their votes.

Among them were several hundred people from the Rochester area who traveled by car and bus to Omaha. Fatima Giwa was one of them. She told All Things Considered host Tom Crann why she cast her ballot in favor of separation from northern Sudan.